Let’s ‘call it as it is’ a bit more in 2024
Recently, I read an article about the enormous burden alcohol is having on the Irish emergency departments. This got me thinking about Minister McEntee’s new proposals for the Sale of Alcohol Bill and the knock on effect it will inevitably have on our community.
I am personally saddened to find some disturbing evidence about our current alcohol consumption trends.
One in every Five Patients – Alcohol consumption was a factor in 19.4% of Emergency Department presentations and in 17.3% of hospital admissions as per a recent study.
One Driver every hour – Garda Chief Supt Jane Humphreys said on the 20th December 2023 “already from the 1st December we have had one arrest per hour for intoxicated driving. That in itself is absolutely shocking”.
One in every Four ambulance call outs – In Scotland (with a similar population to Ireland) over one in four (28.2%) ambulance call outs at weekend night times (6pm to 6am) are alcohol harm related. 86,780 ambulance callouts were identified as alcohol-related in 2019. No reason not to believe that we have similar patterns here in Ireland.
More worrying is how few interventions are done at an individual level to establish if those impacted should complete an alcohol harm assessment before discharge from hospital or as part of any court proceedings.
One Key Question still remains unanswered: Will the Sale of Alcohol Bill turn these grim statistics into more unintended consequences or does the whole Government believe that the bill will reduce alcohol harm for individuals, families, employers and the wider communities whilst increasing the already super normal profits of the alcohol industry?
One Potential Solution:
An independent and comprehensive health impact study needs to be undertaken and the report published ahead of the Sale of Alcohol Bill coming again before the Houses of the Oireachtas in 2024.
Government Needs a ‘New Year Rethink’ of the Sale of Alcohol Bill
Later this week, along with colleagues Dr. Sheila Gilheany, CEO Alcohol Action Ireland, and Marion Rackard of *Silent Voices, we will present an open letter to the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD expressing our concerns on the Sale of Alcohol Bill.
We will again request that a health assessment be undertaken on this Bill before it is brought forward for further consideration. The wellbeing of current and future generations depends on the decisions taken by the whole of Government on what we consider as a totally unwarranted extension of alcohol sales opportunities in favour of ‘Big Alcohol’ stakeholders.
As a person in long term recovery from alcohol harm, I can still hear my local barman of a 70’s Dublin calling time at 11:30PM with shouts of:
“Have Yez No homes to go to.”
